[quote name='Petie' timestamp='1343832119' post='712258']
[color=#0000ff]I was going with what Pumpkin quoted for the way it was typed though I suppose all caps could look good as well.[/color][/quote]
artistic license is a beautiful thing.
[color=#0000ff][quote]The font is Trebuchet MS - I'm not sure if it's the default elsewhere. I'm open to an actual suggestion for a font.[/quote][/color]
It just looks like myriad from illustrator. regardless, it looks like a default font and that's a no-no. I might try gotham or arial black but I don't know what fonts you have and I can almost guarantee you don't have all of mine so just play around.
[color=#0000ff][quote]Color-wise, that can get tricky here. All I did was bump up the colors with an adjustment layer. Adjusting one side separately from the other is going to do weird things to the main background color though, which does match between the two images. I'm sure there's more I can do with the adjustment layers themselves but this is well beyond my normal Photoshop work so it's going to be a bit of a learning experience. Suggestions there?[/quote][/color]
... no it doesn't. one is black and one is light blue. the left has a dark purple blue background (at least where the light hits) and the other is light blue. that's an easy fix. and adjustment layers aren't a "one and done" type of deal. usually you have to use 3+ in order to get things to work together in harmony, and not 3+ of the same type of layer. I'm talking b/c, saturation, selective color, curves, photo filters, gradient maps, etc. I already told you how to make the colors even. the beauty of adjustment layers is that they're masked, so you can erase parts of them and create that harmony. and that's why I said adjust the individual images first. you're not gonna make them match if you don't selectively change the colors
[color=#0000ff][quote]And yes, I figured that's why you were offering but you can't master anything without practice so teaching is welcome (and appreciated) but I'd rather do the actual work myself.[/quote][/color]
well there you go then. I told you what to do. I'm not going to tell you what values on selective color you should change but when you actually open up all the menus, it becomes fairly easy to learn.

if there's one thing in the world of typography that irks me is when caps and lowercase are mixed. for this one, I'd say that you should go all caps. the font choice is okay, not spectacular. I'm pretty sure it's the default for illustrator? keep playing around with them and post the ones you like most. as far as the colors go, they look like they're not in the same picture. obviously they're not the same picture, but the point is to make them look like they're the same. the image on the left looks like it has some weird gaussian blur on it and it's pretty contrasted, versus the one on the right that looks a lot sharper and is dull. are you doing adjustment layers or just applying the effects to the actual image layers? if you're doing the latter, shame on you! they're okay to use on specific layers when you're trying to create the same atmosphere in both images. you can see that the left image has more purple/red tones with blue undertones versus the right that has blues and purples with blue undertones. it's important to get them to match a bit so that way, when you do adjustment layers, the colors even out. the downside to adjustment layers is that they do take a lot of practice to master, which is why I offered to do it to begin with.

okok. I'm used to romping around KHI being an asshole. the first thing about fonts is that they should never be picked randomly. the font needs to go with whatever you're making. so for this banner, you already got a lot going on with the images being used, I'd go with a fairly basic font with maybe a few flourishes. maybe. but for big headers, a basic font tends to work well. I don't mind drop shadows being used if they're necessary but here, it's really not. emboss is also something that's kind of unnecessary. something you might want to play with is a soft gradient overlay, like a white to light pink. drop shadows look pretty nice with this if they're minimal. I'd also suggest using some color adjustment layers on the images to make the colors pop a bit more since they're kind of dull and flat right now. I can do all that stuff if you want to send me the psd later.

[quote name='Petie' timestamp='1340022204' post='712035']
[color=#0000ff]You might not actually be too far off the mark, given everything that's happened in the US recently. Not sure if the infection has spread to other parts of the world yet...[/color]
[/quote]
Hey I just met you, and this is crazy. But here's some bath salts, your face is tasty.